Parenting Tips
By Myrna B. Shure, Ph.D
For the WHYY Children's Service

What Gifts to Buy

Holiday gifts. What to buy. Do you feel frustrated when you spend so much money for toys and games your child disregards so soon?

What can you do this year?

Choose toys and games that keep your children active, not passive. With mechanical toys, your children just watch. Do you want them to participate, manipulate, and create?

With clay, they can make "people" that dance on the table, and even create a little show, to music if they want, and little hand puppets can be added to their "stage."

With sturdy wooden blocks, they can make their own "cars," "airports," or "homes."

Art supplies, construction toys, puzzles that challenge.

And video games--but which ones? Interactive ones with stories your children can create endings for, art programs to draw on the screen. Avoid very fast moving ones. Avoid over-stimulation.

Keep your child active, not the toy - or game.

Play is not an endless expenditure of energy. It has goals your children take seriously. You can help them reach those goals.